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Background Oral health constitutes a critical component of overall health, and tooth loss significantly compromises quality of life. Dental implants, as an ideal restorative solution, face accessibility challenges due to their high cost. The rapid aging of the population in China—with the proportion of individuals aged 65 and above reaching 14.9%—further intensifies the demand for such treatments. In response, the government implemented a Centralized Volume-Based Procurement for dental implants in 2023, achieving an average price reduction of 55%, with the objective of improving accessibility through the strategy of “Price-Cutting For Volume”. This study utilizes procurement data from a western province(Sichuan Province) before and after the policy implementation to quantify the net impact of the policy on procurement volume, thereby addressing existing research gaps and providing evidence for future policy refinement. Method Using online procurement data from 1,012 medical institutions in Sichuan Province over a 45-month period (September 2021 – May 2025), an interrupted time series analysis (ITS) was conducted to assess the policy’s net effect on implant procurement volume (the outcome variable), particularly in terms of level and trend changes. Statistical analysis was performed using statsmodels, and the Durbin-Watson (DW) test was applied to detect autocorrelation. Result The interrupted time series analysis revealed that the Centralized Procurement Policy significantly increased the short-term procurement volume of dental implants, with an overall increase of 7,340.63 units(p < 0.01). Across different types of institutions, procurement volumes increased immediately following the policy implementation across all hospital grades (Tertiary Hospitals: +2,299.26; Secondary Hospitals: +374.30; Primary Hospitals: +47.25; Others: +4,611.01; all p < 0.01). However, the long-term trend revealed a divergence: procurement volumes in high-grade hospitals (tertiary and secondary) remained stable, whereas those in other hospitals—primarily private institutions—demonstrated a significant downward trend (− 157.55 units per month, p < 0.01).Brand-level analysis indicated that while imported products experienced a short-term surge, their growth rate slowed significantly compared to domestic alternatives (trend difference: −190.16 units per month, p < 0.05), signaling the emergence of domestic substitution. Additionally, the procurement volume of Winning products dominated the market (p < 0.01), whereas non-Winning products were not significantly affected. Conclusion The Centralized Procurement Policy for dental implants significantly boosted procurement demand in a western province(Sichuan Province) in the short term, particularly among high-level hospitals and for imported products. However, a long-term deceleration trend has emerged. Attention should be directed toward insufficient Primary hospitals response, structural adjustments (notably the early stages of domestic substitution), and potential market saturation risks. Complementary measures should be strengthened to ensure the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of the policy.

\"The first major reappraisal of Pierre Trudeau's controversial defence policy, The Price of Alliance uses the 1976 procurement of Leopard tanks for Canada's troops in Europe to shed light on Canada's relationship with NATO. After six years of pressure from Canada's allies, Trudeau was convinced that Canadian tanks in Europe were necessary to support foreign policy objectives, and the tanks symbolized an increased Canadian commitment to NATO. Drawing on interviews and records from Canada, NATO, the US, and Germany, Frank Maas addresses the problems of defence policymaking within a multi-country alliance, and the opportunities and difficulties of Canadian defence procurement.\"-- Provided by publisher.

Background In September 2019, the “4 + 7” centralized procurement pilot program was expanded nationwide aiming at reducing drug prices by means of volume-based procurement and using accredited generic drugs for branded drug substitutes. Given the current uncertain effect of the policy outside pilot areas, this study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the National Volume-based Procurement policy on the use of policy-related drugs after expansion. Method A single-group interrupted time series was applied using drug purchase data, covering 25 months from December 2018 to December 2020. Drugs related to the centralized procurement policy were selected as samples, including 25 first-batch policy-related drugs and 56 alternative drugs. Centralized procured drugs can be divided into bid-winning and non-winning products, where non-winning products were sorted into generic and branded drugs, and alternative products were classified according to different degrees of substitution. Purchase volume, expenditures, and daily costs were measured. Results After the implementation of the policy, a significant increase was associated with the volume of bid-winning drugs ( p  < 0.001) and the volume of generic and branded drugs decreased immediately. The DDDc of drugs under the same generic name significantly reduced (an instantaneous drop of bid-winning drugs by approximately 25%, 7.62 CNY for generics and 3.07 CNY for branded drugs), saving 48.2 million CNY of drug expenditures. The policy has a significant effect on the drug for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and exerted little influence on the drug for the treatment of nervous diseases, and the substitution of generics for antitumor-branded drugs was not obvious. In addition, the procurement volume of alternative drugs appeared to be a “carry-over”. Conclusions These findings indicated that the policy demonstrated positive effects in terms of price reductions and cost savings and accelerated the substitution of generics against branded drugs. The “patent cliff” for branded drugs has gradually emerged. Besides, a short-term “spillover effect” of the volume of alternative drugs was observed, requiring special attention and vigilance.

There is a significant potential to improve the benefits from public procurement through a better understanding of drivers in company success at the micro-level, an area that has received little study to date. To increase these impacts on innovation and markets, policy makers have opened procurement to innovation, including the strategic incorporation of formal standards in calls for tenders. Consequently, companies offering innovative solutions should have higher chances to be successful in public tenders. In addition, companies who engage in standardization activities at standards development organizations may have a competitive advantage in submitting tenders. Examining the case of Germany, this paper empirically investigates the effects of German manufacturing companies’ innovation activities and their engagement in national standardization on the receipt of contracts within domestic procurement competitions. The results of our empirical analyses based on German companies surveyed within the framework of the Community Innovation Survey show that being successful in product innovation and being engaged in standardization are significant positive predictors of companies’ success in public procurement. With implications for policy-makers and practitioners, this shows that public procurement is indeed open for solutions from companies active in innovation and standardization.

The South African preferential procurement policy emerged from the demand for transparency, fair competition, value-for-money, standardised and benchmark pricing, and regulation of public procurement arrangements in the construction industry. The policy aims to address historical inequalities, support economic growth, and foster sustainable development. The effectiveness of the preferential procurement policy in South Africa is affected by the inhibiting factors of its implementation system. Given this, this study assesses the factors inhibiting preferential procurement policy implementation in the South African construction industry. This study reviewed the extant literature from online databases as a secondary data source to identify and understand the factors inhibiting procurement policy implementation. A quantitative research design using a closed-ended survey questionnaire surveyed 31 identified inhibiting factors affecting procurement policy implementation from the literature review. One hundred sixty-seven (167) questionnaires were retrieved from two hundred (200) distributed, representing an 83.5 per cent response rate, distributed through Google Forms to the respondents in Northwest Province, South Africa. The reliability of the data collection instrument was determined using Bartlett’s sphericity, Cronbach’s alpha, and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin tests. The exploratory factor analysis findings established eight components from the 31 identified inhibiting factors affecting procurement policy implementation, which are the absence of due diligence in procurement screening, corruption and political interference in procurement systems, an ineffective regulatory framework supporting public procurement policy, discrepancies in award of contracts and the absence of dispute resolution, ambiguity in procurement selection criteria, poor enforcement mechanisms, cost discrepancies in advance payment, and excessive bureaucracy in procurement documentation. This study’s practical implications provide an understanding of establishing and prioritising procurement selection criteria, such as project requalification requirements, cost performance requirements, technology integration in the prequalification process, and contract change order requirements, which would improve procurement systems in the South African construction industry.

We analyze the optimal design of policies to motivate electricity distribution companies to adopt efficient distributed energy resources (DER) and manage associated project costs. The optimal policy often entails a bias against new DER projects and implements cost sharing when DER projects are undertaken in order to foster cost containment while limiting excessive profit for the utility. Failure to adequately tailor the degree of cost sharing to the prevailing environment can raise procurement costs substantially. The distribution company may optimally be awarded more than the cost saving it achieves.

The literature evaluating the technical and socioeconomic outcomes of policy instruments used to support the transition to low-carbon economies is neither easily accessible nor comparable and often provides conflicting results. We develop and implement a framework to systematically review and synthesize the impact of ten types of decarbonization policy instruments on seven technical and socioeconomic outcomes. Our systematic review shows that the selected types of regulatory and economic and financial instruments are generally associated with positive impacts on environmental, technological and innovation outcomes. Several instruments are often associated with short-term negative impacts on competitiveness and distributional outcomes. We discuss how these trade-offs can be reduced or transformed into co-benefits by designing research and development and government procurement, deployment policies, carbon pricing and trading. We show how specific design features can promote competitiveness and reduce negative distributional impacts, particularly for small firms. An online interactive Decarbonisation Policy Evaluation Tool allows further analysis of the evidence.Ambitious policy instruments are needed to support the transition to low-carbon economies. This systematic review identifies what we know about positive and negative impacts of ten selected instruments on environmental, technological and socioeconomic outcomes, and how to minimize negative impacts.